Research News: October 2018

Though many of us live increasingly busy lives, the number of those actively involved in volunteerism in the UK is growing. In fact, every year more than 21m people volunteer at least once. But for many people, volunteering is not just a one off, or infrequent thing. In fact, it can be a legacy, a form of tradition which is often passed down through family generations.

We are only just beginning to learn how aquatic organisms will respond to climate change, and the effect that this will have on their communities and ecosystems. One way to find out more is to look at whether species will be able to compensate for changes in their environment. Particularly if they can survive any immediate fluctuations in temperature, and reductions in ocean pH brought about by increasing levels of atmospheric CO₂.

Cambodia has one of the most rapidly developing economies on earth. The country is moving from a rural to an industrial and urban economy at great speed, but its government is also eager to be sustainable and not to lose valuable reserves of natural resources, in its drive to develop.

New research by social and environmental scientists at Bangor University, (Wales, UK); New York University (USA) and a Cambodian NGO, Keosothea Nou (Society for Community Development, Cambodia), one of 13 new projects funded under the ESRC Transformative research call, will provide an overall snapshot of the country’s environmental resources, and how they are used by different individuals. This information will help the government to develop sustainable policies for the energetic country.

There has been a lot of debate recently on the extent of the global fishing footprint. A recent paper claimed that fishing affects 55% of the world’s oceans. Given that many people in the developing world rely on fish as their main source of protein, and the increasing preference for luxury fish products in countries such as China, such statistics might seem plausible.

The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) is celebrating ten years of influencing policy and debate.

A collaboration of five Welsh universities (Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea), WISERD has carried out a decade of pioneering research, providing important insights into the social and economic challenges facing Wales.

i,But coral populations are threatened by a multitude of local and global stressors. Rising ocean temperatures are disrupting the 210m-year-old symbiosis between corals and microscopic algae. When temperatures rise, the coral animal becomes stressed and expels its algal partners, in a process known as coral bleaching.

Take the following scenario. You are nearing the end of a busy day at work, when a comment from your boss diminishes what’s left of your dwindling patience. You turn, red-faced, towards the source of your indignation. It is then that you stop, reflect, and choose not to voice your displeasure. After all, the shift is nearly over.

New research has revealed that tropical corals living in more productive waters take advantage of the increased food availability and that these feeding habits can be predicted from satellites orbiting our planet.

A research centre that will discover new enzymes with the potential to transform the efficiency of biotechnology industries has just been opened in the presence of research scientists from across Europe, industry representatives and officials from the Welsh Government.

Student Crowd (https://www.studentcrowd.com/) provides a space where students can review their university resources, and where potential students can learn about the universities they’re interested in, from real student feedback.

The fellowship, which allows for international mobility and knowledge exchange will enable Dr Karina Marsden of Bethesda to spend two years working in The University of Melbourne, Australia, before returning to Bangor University for the final year of her research project. It was awarded following a successful joint application by Bangor and Melbourne universities.

Conflict between humans and elephants has reached a crisis point in Kenya. As the elephants have begun to regularly raid farms in search of food, it has become not uncommon for local people to attack and kill them in retaliation. Between 2013 and 2016, 1,700 crop raiding incidents, 40 human deaths and 300 injuries caused by wildlife were reported in the Kajiado district alone.

Cabinet Secretary for Education Kirsty Williams has today (11/10/18) launched the Welsh Government’s new Rural Education Action Plan that introduces a range of initiatives and measures for educational improvements and experiences across rural school areas of Wales.

The action plan forms a pivotal part of the transformation reforms outlined in Education in Wales - Our national mission 2017-21 that sets out Welsh Government’s strategy on how they aim to improve the school system by 2021 and details activities which will transform policy into practices in our schools. The action plan draws upon evidence and recommendations made in a research report led by Gwilym Siôn ap Gruffudd of Bangor University’s School of Education and Human Development. The report: Rethinking Educational Attainment and Poverty- in Rural Wales (REAP) was commissioned by Regional Education Consortia ERW and GwE as a result of a competitive tender process.

About a quarter of the world's seafood caught in the ocean comes from bottom trawling, a method that involves towing a net along the seabed on continental shelves and slopes to catch shrimp, cod, rockfish, sole and other kinds of bottom-dwelling fish and shellfish. The technique impacts these seafloor ecosystems, because other marine life and habitats can be unintentionally killed or disturbed as nets pass across the seafloor.

A new analysis that uses high-resolution data for 24 ocean regions in Africa, Europe, North and South America and Australasia shows that only 14 percent of the overall seafloor shallower than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) is trawled. Most trawl fishing happens in this depth range along continental shelves and slopes in the world's oceans. The study focused on this depth range, covering an area of about 7.8 million square kilometers of ocean.

The Tanzanian Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries is to adopt recommendations for conserving the unique genetic diversity of tilapia for food security.

The recommendations are based on the findings of research led by Prof George Turner at Bangor University's School of Natural Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues at Bristol University, the Earlham Institute at Norwich and at the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (Tafiri), funded by the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Research and expertise by Canolfan Bedwyr's Language Technologies Unit were referenced the European Parliament recently, as Plaid Cymru's European MP, Jill Evans, credited the work of the Unit as being at the forefront of minority language technology. The MEP presented findings of the recommendations made by the Digital Language Diversity Project (DLDP) in its report on ensuring linguistic equality in the fields of digital technology. Following the speech by Jill Evans MEP, the head of the Language Technologies Unit, Delyth Prys, and the Unit's Chief Software Engineer, Dewi Bryn Jones, were invited to speak at a conference on language technologies and digital equality within a multilingual Europe.

Students are often reminded that a degree is “not enough”, and that they will also need “employability skills” – a complex combination of personal attributes, discipline-specific knowledge and generic talents – to succeed after university. They are encouraged while studying to develop skills such as problem solving, self-management and the ability to work as part of a team.

In the space of a few years, Britain’s political landscape has changed. Now, generally, young people are proportionately more likely to have socially liberal and socialist views, and want to remain part of the EU. Meanwhile, older demographics proportionately voted for Brexit, and were said to be largely responsible for voting the Conservatives into office in 2017.